Fright Night
by Ms.Dawes
Summary: Bonnie is having nightmares and Damon is concerned about Alaric's activities, and the town has zombie infestation. An Alaric,Damon,Bonnie fic.


**The Wicked Corpse**

Summary: Bonnie is having nightmares and Damon is concerned about Alaric's activities, and the town has zombie infestation. An Alaric/Damon/Bonnie fic.

A/N: After 'As I Lay Dying', there are no real ships in this fic, maybe implied Bonnie/Damon and Alaric/OC because i wanted to write a fic that was not only about romance.

**Chapter 1 - A Conversation of Sorts**

Bonnie Bennet stirred her alcohol free mojito, the zing from the lemon and mint was doing a good job of making sure she didn't fall asleep on her face. Matt might have commented for the fourth time on the bags under her eyes, Sleep deprivation wasn't a normal look she supported; it was just a current phase. She was having nightmares and they were getting more and more intense, every time she closed her eyes, dead bodies and the smell of decay made an appearance.

It was a pity none of them made any kind of sense to her. Only one thing she was sure of that her nightmares always spelled some kind of witchy trouble. The 'lots of people dying' kind of trouble and as always for the umpteenth time she would try to stop humans from getting killed from whatever rising supernatural threat. Bonnie was pretty much resigned to her outlining of contingency plans even before she knew of whether a threat was imminent or just her overworked brain making up trouble to keep her adrenaline from the last few eventful days running out.

She'd tried a spell to conjure an explanation for the dreams, it required her staying awake seventy two hours straight, not the worst kind of physical duress she's been through with her spells only her eyes felt like they might fall off from the extreme need to close them...for a long time, which is probably why she almost missed Damon slipping onto a stool right next to her, he usually avoids her, so this was an odd occurrence, she did not ask why. Not that his obnoxiousness wouldn't make his presence felt soon enough.

'Sooo where's the party?' He asked nudging a look in the direction of her drink. She'd only spared a fleeting glance at him swallowing a shot of something awful, no doubt and tried rubbing her tired eyes to clear her cobwebby vision, It didn't help as much as she hoped.

'It's Non Alcoholic for your information, i don't get drunk and start throwing people around the pool table like they're inanimate objects'. Now he gave her his full attention without a bout of offense. Classic Damon, for some infuriating reason he was always immune to her caustic reaction to his general presence. He put his glass down to give her sarcasm his undivided attention.

'Oh yeah i forgot, or else how would you judge the rest of the world and their mother through your witchy may care eyes if you got smashed like the rest of us poor slobs once in a while... and for the record the throwing people around the pool?... only happened once, with the tequila..and the dancer...and the spell..'. He trailed off looking into space longingly as if a particularly fond memory had struck him.

Her most glowering of glares usually did very little to dissuade him from further tormenting her verbally with his crap so she didn't even try, it probably helped she hadn't slept for two days. 'Go away Damon, i'm really not in the mood for your brand of snark tonight okay?'

And she thought that was the end of it,

No sooner than her thoughts turned towards her longing of staking the vampire...He sighed sadly, sidling up uncomfortably close to her, she roved her eyes in warning at him 'Oh come on Bonnie, everybody we know has disappeared, run off to some retreat or just plain dead, we should irritate each other a little for the sake of normality'

Bonnie pulled out the straw from her mojito and swallowed down a big gulp before getting up 'Fine, i'll leave...' There was a tug on her hand, Damon had a hold of her wrist and he wasn't letting go.

'Damon...' she said with warning and reminded him of the time she almost fried his brains for good which she felt was a perfectly good threat, something she could follow through even in her sleep.

'Hey just because we aren't friends you don't have to take that tone with me...' Bonnie rolled her eyes 'But we aren't friends Damon...you remember the time you tried to kill me and how because of you the only loving relative of mine is dead? and how everyone i care about keeps getting killed or turned into a vampire ?'

There were frown lines between her brows which had appeared shortly after Jenna's death which she wanted to blame him for as well but thought might sound too petty. It's the aftermath which really gave her frown lines. Elena's took off to some spiritual retreat because Jeremy almost died, and apparently Jeremy felt he needed space away from everyone including Bonnie to figure out his life. Which she just could not pretend to understand, the best thing would have been for them both to stick together, and get through this time as a couple. Because she knew well how loss and uncertainty of life can make you drift away from everyone you love. Someone like Damon could never understand her mistrust of his basic nature.

Because she felt he was the reason for all misfortune that had befallen them all from the last two years, destruction ran unchecked in their human lives since Salvatore brothers arrival into Mystic Falls.

He still took her rant in stride 'Okay point taken...but i need you to do something for me' She looked at her wrist which he promptly let go and slid back onto his stool and ordered a beer. She just masked her annoyance enough to sit back down ignoring Matt's look of concern from behind the counter while cleaning glasses and shooting murderous glares in Damon's direction from time to time.

'Damon i am not your magic eight ball or hotline to the powers that be and i'm not doing any spells for you unless they are approved by and in the presence of some sane person' He gave her a practiced hurt look at that and waved her off. 'Oh come on, you know you like it when we all pressurize you for some life saving witch action'

She reminded him once again that she was not a performing monkey and her spells were not out of a recreational need. Most of her recent spells were inspired by Klaus who had blown town with Stefan without leaving the slightest of trails. There was a brief moment of silence to reflect on all the damage left behind by the Original vampire and then a grunt of mutual discontentment from both unwilling acquaintances. She supposed he needn't a reminder of how his brother sacrificed free will in order to keep Damon form dying from a wolf bite or that he was the main reason Klaus took Jenna as a sacrifice, she only hoped he felt bad enough to stay away from all of them.

Bonnie was sure he could read her mind without actually reading it , his expression hard and unreadable, he looked away, she almost felt bad for reprimanding him harshly...but not quite. In her book he deserved the harshest punishments as they came.

'I need you to work your witchy magic on Alaric, something's wrong with him.'

Damon's definition of wrong could range typically anywhere on a normal day from morally ridiculous to death defyingly serious, and if Alaric was in any really life threatening danger she doubted Damon would sit around for a drink or two while insulting her lineage before getting to the point, which is why she silently contemplated whether to finish her drink and let her gulping do the talking, she was not getting roped into anything that would jeopardise her sanity beyond what its endured already. And if she had a dollar for every single time she's wished the same ... she could probably buy herself mojitos for life.

'He's acting weird and mysterious, and not at all like himself' He further clarified for her, as if she were listening. All this eye rolling was giving her a head ache but she went for it anyway 'Weird because he's not talking to you?...' the pause said more than his actual rendition of the problem, He looked at her side ways with a mouthful of beer , which she returned with a fake smile. How odd that the vampire needed the attention of a high school teacher to feel comfortable in his irritating skin. She thought about Alaric's odd alliance with the vampire and how he must be some kind of 'disturbed' to let Damon be his friend after he murdered his wife. She could never be that forgiving. Maybe that made her judgemental and harsh in her friends' eyes but that's who she was, it's not like she could make the decision for others. They'd have to realize someday...

'The guy's mourning give him a break Damon, he's probably taking stock of his life' She knew she was, since Klaus left everyone was feeling emotionally vulnerable. Death and violence never really get old no matter how many times there's a reprise.

'Yeah sure 'Doctor Phil', but when your washing your mouth out with scotch first thing in the morning and calling everyone in sight 'ginger' then you know there's a seeeeerious problem' She glared at the nickname, he ignored it, it was a wonderful heart to heart moment. Damon smashed back another shot of something crude which made his face twist into a sour grimace.

'So talk to him, he calls you his friend, I'm sure he'll feel better if he knew you're concerned...' she paused 'Wait, did he call you ginger?' There was chuckle of ridicule at her expense which she has expected all along but then that was just the vampires way, she was too sleepy to take the proper amount of offence she usually would.

'Have we met?, i don't do concern, besides Alaric doesn't need empathic shit ...he's ...complex, and what's with you? i thought you were into all this emotionally debilitating crap that involves talking about your feelings constantly?' This was really the first time they were having a conversation that didn't involve him coercing or manhandling her into performing a morally reprehensible spell, and she was too delirious to be clear about her blatant dislike of him. Not that something like that would stop him. She rested her glass against her forehead and almost fell off her stool, the cold made her feel worse she even wasn't sure why she did it.

'He's not a vampire Damon, You can't expect him to shut off his emotions just because he's alone and he hunts vampires as a side gig'

'Oh hey, look at you all observant...i KNOW he's not a vampire which is why i'm asking you to do something, because every time i 'talk' to him, it ends with him punching me and me breaking his neck, killing him stone cold dead and then he comes to life again hating my guts...for a while.'

She would look at him funny but he was probably just being honest, 12 pm on her watch marked the seventy hour requirement for the spell, if she knew another spell to materialize herself home at click of her fingers she would do it just to phase Damon. He continued talking about Alaric and his issues at the expense of her indifference, only the beeping of her watch's alarm distracted him. That or her sliding off her stool to leave was a sign of how much she wasn't listening.

Something known not to stop the vampire from carrying on, she only stopped outside the grill to notice the moon's strangely eerie fullness and the silence of her surroundings unable to let go a feeling of déjà vu before she felt Damon's oppressive silence again imposing on her freedom to leave. 'What Damon?...I don't know what you want me to do, i can't bother him if he doesn't want to be bothered...'

'I just want to stop Ric from doing something stupid, and if you care about general human life as much you pretend to then you better do something about it too' He slapped a day old newspaper in her hand before storming off into the night leaving her completely bewildered and mildly irritated.

'The front page of the newspaper read 'Zombies in Mystic Fall?, Official's refuse to comment on the disappearance of 5 corpses from the local cemetery.' in large, bold letters. Leaving Bonnie to wonder what any of it had to do with Alaric Saltzman.

* * *

Something woke her up, she wasn't sure whether it was a noise or a dream, but there was a feeling, the same eerie feeling she had felt when leaving the grill, someone or ...something was watching her. She was too groggy to be sure about which. A sane person could argue Bonnie was overreacting but her house seemed much quieter than usual, little tell tale creaks and bangs were not present at all. There was definitely something wrong.

Ever since her dealings with the supernatural, Bonnie resorted to stashing weapons all over the house, large kitchen knife, a classic weapon, lay under her mattress. She reached a hand out in front of her and saw...nothing.

Total darkness.

It seemed doubtful that power failure was what woke her up, she reached for her hidden knife anyway determined not to let the dark be an estranging factor. As if on cue, just as her hand grasped the knifes handle a floorboard creaked somewhere nearby.

Someone was in her house. Crime rate in mystic falls with no supernatural ring to it was very few and far between. She had nothing valuable a burglar might want except for a book of spells it had to be someone who knew she was witch or someone looking to exact revenge for Klaus's cause. An unwanted tremble creeped up her arm at the thought of the Original swaggering through her house.

Oh damn, was it Klaus? Now? For some reason she felt an irrational need to remember what attire she fell asleep in and of course there was the odd need to pee.

Wonderful.

Another creak later she purged the urge and got under her bed. The thought of doing a no violence protection spell was tempting but there was no way in hell she could get to the ingredients in time, she'd have to cross over to the kitchen bypassing whatever or whoever it was, unless she knew where the attacker was she couldn't really make the move.

Element of surprise was probably not going to work for the attacker, Her bedroom door was slightly ajar not that it made much difference in the pitch black darkness, she only wished the other guy had bad night vision. The only other sound as far as she could count was her laboured breathing, even though she was fairly confident of her power being greater than the attacker her heart was still doing sit ups, not the good kind. There was another uneasy lurch outside her room, like shuffling newspaper or jeans.

Something about the creaking floor boards and the newspaper Damon gave her sparked a memory from her dreams.

Someone was digging in the graveyard under the quiet full moon with a shovel and strange murmurings or chanting's were going on in the background, a bloody bite mark on an arm. Wait, was that a real moan? Suddenly her eyes snapped open and her room was dank with a smell she could only describe as rotten eggs and meat, her throat convulsed with the oppressively thick stench, Bonnie covered her nose. It hardly helped, her bedroom door creaked slightly so did her insides and her hand tightened on the knife.

And then somebody was knocking loudly on her window, she almost jumped out of her skin, Damon was outside her window. She could make out his silhouette and bumped her head getting out from under the bed. So help her if this was his idea of pursuing each other for some bout of general irritation she would stake him right here right now.

'What the hell are you doing? What time is it?' she demanded opening only half her window to him, he gave her a once over as if he were surprised but looked in some sort of hurry 'it's 3 am the witching hour, surprise , surprise ...Cute PJ's...i was in the neighbourhood and realized you've never invited me into your home' He said this gently as if it were to explain everything to her.

Bonnie only blinked patiently at his expectant stance 'Ok I'm confused, Am i still dreaming?', He sighed and looked at her like she was crazy and asked to be let in again. She would have told him to get lost and magicked her window shut when a painful moan behind her caught her and Damon's attention, his 'I told you...' trailed behind her like a spiteful prank.

Bonnie turned around slowly, like in the movies and was confronted by the source of the stench, it was rotting alright, rotting flesh hanging off what only she could describe as an animated corpse. The corpse seemed to shuffle as if on bad feet towards her the rest of it hardly in sync with the speed of its lower extremities. But worst of all were the pained moans it was emitting and they were the most distracting.

She wanted to tell Damon to come in but could only get out 'in...in' in a very soft, strangled voice.

'Unless you want to be a zombie chew toy i suggest you say the whole thing!' Her eyes wide and unblinking she managed to squeak a 'come in already!' before the zombie was upon her Damon smashed his way in and struck the zombie as hard as he could, it stopped making the awful moaning noises and dropped to the floor like...well, a dead body.

Damon stared it down completely non-plussed as if this were some everyday occurrence and not shocking at all. 'You can close your mouth now, and i tried to warn you...'

Bonnie obliged with his request and held herself tight unable to respond to his taunt. Dirt, blood and the horrible smell trailed into her room like a casual invasion by school kids of a birthday party. Irrational thoughts were the just on a roll tonight, as she thought who would clean this mess up now. And if she could hire a professional carpet cleaner service and her response to the obvious questions that would undoubtedly arise. Maybe a memory altering charm could help.

'Well, shall we?...' he asked casually as if he's just had a bug quashing tournament and was going to take her for a victory drink. 'Shall we what Damon?...'

'Get out of here? I don't know if this is the only one...' Bonnie gaped at him horrified 'You're kidding, there are more of these things walking around town?' Before he could answer her there was that sordid moan again and the zombie he'd struck dead so easily had come alive once again knocking Damon down with it. The zombie seemed to have come back with greater strength then before and was not giving Damon much of a fighting chance.

Bonnie still had her knife, she teetered over the rumbling duo on her floor while the zombie held Damon in his choke hold refusing to let go. Only after a pained prompt from the vampire she realised she was meant to do something in this situation, she unglued herself form the spot she was standing and raised her weapon, asking him to stop moving around so much which only earned her a dirty look from the vampire but he did as told in an attempt to be saved as the zombie prepared she unceremoniously plunged the large knife into the zombies back. It stunned the zombie but she supposed it didn't feel much pain because it kept going and was about to take another large mouthful of a cursing Damon.

She just thought of a spell, the only one that could probably help loosen the zombies hold. 'Bonnie..Oww!...i can be a real jackass sometimes but think of how upset Elena may be if she comes to find me with a missing arm ...or leg...or HEAD!' The zombie was on top of him and had chewed through some of his arm already.

She shut her eyes, searched her memory for the right one and whispered the spell over the zombie. There was large wet sound and then an ugly 'thud'.

Damon cursed loudly.

Bonnie sat in silence for a while and Damon continued the curse parade while lifting off pieces of rotten flesh off of himself, she sat in the other corner praying none of 'it' had landed on her hair when she did the exploding spell. Bits and large chunks of the zombie had rained all over her room, she and Damon were covered with blood and guts. And he was the only one showing his dislike for the spell she chose.

'Well, it was either that or your body parts all over my room' he gave her another dirty look and finally heaved himself off the floor with some effort considering he was bleeding far more easily then healing. Her window was shattered, she had just pulled a shard from her toe whose sting she hardly felt because she was still slightly numb from the terror of it all.

'I need blood ...' Damon told her casually sagging down on her bed, as if this were her cue to step up.

'You're not getting any of mine..' there was that 'are you ridiculously out of your mind?' look from him to her which was probably meant to shame her in some sort of way, luckily when it came to dealings with his kind of vampires she was strictly shameless. The dramatic eye roll in her direction said it all. She found this passive aggression between them uniquely odd that despite being unconventional, at times casual acquaintances, they recognised each other's nuances well.

'Uh, i didn't know that was an option...just drive me, and if you do without changing that's just a bonus for me' the fake smile with the come on line was just a front for the pain and she saw no reason to comment on it, not that she couldn't give him a 'drop dead' look but with her nerves at the moment the magic in her might just fulfil the fleeting wish.

Bonnie realised then that she has by far done many then a few favours to the Salvatore brother willingly, unhappy with the knowledge that she almost felt like refusing Damon the drive home to recuperate with a blood bag, His suffering a little more might make her slide into the inevitable vicious cycle of assisting what she thought was the 'other' side easier. Unfortunately for her the humane side of her still counted him as living in some form, and it felt morally wrong to let him continue bleeding on her bed between her stuffed cats, which were splashed with large helpings of the gore already.

How was she going to ever rid the stuffed animals of that? The idea of having to get rid of a reminder of her childhood upset her allot more than Damon's state of pain, she must have shown the current discontentment because Damon told her if she didn't get moving he would rip up the damn stuffed toys and then she wouldn't have to worry about the mess, she only spared a fleeting murderous look at him as his hand hovered over her prized zebra.

'Give me five minutes to change...'

* * *

Bonnie watched Damon with morbid curiosity as he sucked blood bag after blood bag trying to replenish lost muscle and energy, which she had to fetch for him because he hardly made it through the door to his and Stefan's place before crashing in the hallway. And he didn't seem to care about the mess he was making, she tried to mask the growing disgust inside. After the zombie attack this was just making her nauseous.

She had been here a number of different times, every time a crisis was brewing, none of her visits had been social and all occurred when Stefan was around to make sure Damon didn't manhandle her into anything she didn't want to get into, too bad he had gone off and disappeared with Klaus. The atmosphere around her seemed suddenly quite hostile and awkward. She was unsure of where to seat herself, whether to pretend to make herself at home or act as uncomfortable and unsure of herself as she really felt.

Seemed like Damon had recovered somewhat too because after the 4th blood bag he was aware of her watching him and wiped the corners of his mouth with a torn sleeve 'You don't have to stay you know?...i'm good'

She nodded assuming her offence to the lack of gratitude from him would go unnoticed. 'You're the one who said we need to get out of my house because of the unidentified number of zombies walking around town' He paused mid drinking to get a good view of her, she felt self conscious of his stare even though she was wearing her jeans and sweatshirt over the awfully revealing pj's she'd been supporting just before getting attacked.

'OK...then why don't you settle down somewhere in my humble abode instead of looking like I'm about to bite you...because you're kinda making me nervous' Bonnie wanted to say something rude but decided to restrain herself. Damon was filthy with blood, his hair was matted to his head in what she felt was an unattractive way. She sat down on a Victorian seat far enough not to seem too uncomfortable nor near enough to exchange recipes and pleasantries unless badly required 'So...i don't know where to start..'

He threw the emptied blood bag into the fire place, there was a crackling of pause and then got up dramatically ' Let me help you...Zombies, there are another three of these roaming in some part of this lucky, lucky town' Another bag was opened and blood poured into a glass for a more leisurely course of drinking. He also handed her another copy of the same newspaper he gave her earlier when they parted outside the Grill, 'I figured you didn't pay much attention to it the first time you laid eyes on it' yes it was a question and she refused to answer it for fear that he expected her to apologize for her latent indiscretion to his warning. Well, whoopee doo.

'You kept talking about Alaric and something being wrong with him... i figured you're just being an insensitive ass again, how was i supposed to know we suddenly have a zombie infestation in town' Maybe she touched a nerve because he looked like he wanted to hit her with the newspaper. 'Oh great i forgot i don't get a vote of confidence just because i don't have my brothers poster boy for Prozac charm'

True, Stefan would have had a better approach to the whole matter, but she doubted it would do any good to mention him for now, especially since there was no way he was going to be back any time soon and if the town was filling up with flesh eating corpses then she'd just have to put her trust in the mostly impulsive and restless. The paper mentioned disturbed graves and missing bodies, there were no suspects which was hardly a surprise but what did surprise her was in the given picture, Alaric standing a couple of scant steps behind the yellow crime tape and authorities, looking like he had during Jenna's funeral, brooding and somewhat unkempt. She cringed asking the question 'Was Jenna's grave one of the five...?'

Damon's body language as he held his glass said everything 'All five were recent deaths including Jenna', she wasn't sure what to say to this, had Alaric done this? It made her sick just thinking about it. She was glad Elena and Jeremy were out of town. She re-read the paper trying soak in any details that might have escaped her exhausted eyes. Now that the adrenaline from the attack had succumbed to just general fear of the unknown locations the other three zombies might be and who they might be eating the rest of mind met with a staggering wall of sleepiness.

'I told you, Ric's been acing weird and I don't mean 'grieving over his girlfriends death weird, he's been making allot of out of town visits' after a beat he added 'And just so we can get the whole moral high ground thing out of the picture... yes I have 'actually' been following him around lately'

She wanted to exclaim disgust for the unabashed confession but tried in the interest of counting her chickens to take a higher road 'I'm still going to say you're creepy but moving on ...what out of town visits has he been making?'

Damon looked a bit reluctant to share any information with her as if he were a school boy asked to divulge a dirty secret of a naughty best friend about to prank the principle. Better yet, she was struck by how any minute action that betrayed a slightly more human side to his vampiric one, made her feel as though her genuine mistrust of him was an unqualified bet. 'He's been visiting the dragons den...'

Okay, she assumed since she wasn't a certified telepath Damon would elaborate on the subject matter he knew all about and she knew nothing about. He didn't, a headache was slowly making its way to her temples and stifling any attempt keep her eyes from squeezing shut in pain. He disappeared from view for a few minutes and when she opened her eyes he was buttoning a new black shirt over startlingly pale torso. Bonnie meant to avert her gaze but didn't on pretence she might miss an impression that might give her some answers because she was physically tired to ask. 'You're not going to even shower?'

He grinned at her in a suggestive way and Bonnie waved him off before he could fill the silence with equally suggestive sentences she didn't have time to reprimand him for 'What's the dragon's den?'

'I can't believe you actually don't know something...' Silence on her part didn't not spur him any quicker to get to the point, the half drunk glass was in his hand again and he took a quiet sip before settling down opposite from her. He sighed 'They're witches, powerful ones...'

'I'm a powerful witch' she reminded him to which he nodded genially 'They're powerful in an evil kind of way, they don't save puppy dogs and shit...They bring about degradation and destruction in the world'

This was news to her why hadn't she heard of them before? Why hadn't gramps mentioned them? Her silent questioning didn't go unanswered 'They exist in small pockets around small towns, don't attract allot of attention to themselves...Only people with allot of juice go see them...Alaric and i knew about them, we found them out when Klaus and his minions started making life miserable around here...We thought it's best to keep it from the rest of you, in case you wayward's got tempted to ask them for help'

Bonnie found it hard to believe Alaric kept something helpful from them, if these witches were as powerful as Damon was making them out to be they could have helped in killing Klaus, Jenna would be alive and Stefan would not have been AWOL. But Damon continued drinking at an unconcerned pace like none of it was of any real consequence 'They don't do favours Bonnie, these bitches grant wishes for a price... nothing less than a soul or a sacrifice' He didn't look at her while saying it, as if he didn't want to her to read his mind.

Oh shit.

'Damon we need to find Alaric...'

Said vampires only response was an unhappy pout

* * *

Alaric

No Drum rolls addressed the mounting dread in the air nor did some scary music blare to assuage the guilt of the determined silence in the room. It wasn't so much as guilty conscience as stunned silence the badly dishevelled trio were promoting in their filthy state.

Trio of banged up, bloodied bunch who could seem to find nothing better to do then to give each other sordid glares as the stench of death rolled off of them in waves, the open windows and the slight breeze passing through did nothing to make it better.

Alaric Saltzman uttered an unusually bereaved sigh on behalf of himself and his well made fabric sofa, on the account that he was currently soiling it with unknown blood and guts that clung to him in the most repulsively intimate manner, that and the realisation that he had no desire to get up and shower any of the stuff off yet spoke indiscriminately of his indifference to all things related to blood.

No, he was more than happy to sip more of the mind numbing liquor that provided the false sense of cleanliness in his current state.

The pause in the atmosphere was palpable with reaction, just not the kind he was used to, the two visitors in his home looking strangely inappropriate in contrast to the serene decor of his home. Silent and unwilling witnesses to his state of general disarray and disillusionment.

Bonnie sat on the last three steps of the spiralling stairs hugging her knees; her gaze pinned on the fireplace while the slight embers teetered near the edge. There was an elongation of the shadow of the vampire standing above her, Damon ...his expression a strange mixture of general annoyance and disbelief. And it was to their left Alaric sat with his glass of liquid amber sipping occasionally, shooting them equally dubious looks from time to time.

He was seeing them for the first time after Jenna's Death.

While neither of them made a move to change their positions or expressions the clock in the hall ticked away oblivious to their pained predicament, and the fire burned through wood with gentle practiced ease. _It was _When Alaric let out yet another painful sigh at the sight of a few, fairly large drops of dark blood on his carpet near his feet… Damon let his presence be reminded of by clearing his throat.

Alaric shook his glass in the direction half heartedly 'Yessss...Damon, i assume there's something on your mind?'

His indifference towards the Vampires unspoken concern didn't go unnoticed, that's why when Damon marched over to Alaric's ruined four hundred dollar sofa, he didn't bother looking up, instead carried on the sip parade with his drink.

'Yesss Ric ...you wanna run this by me one more time…'

Sensing the question wasn't completely rhetorical Alaric set his glass of blank oblivion down to briefly address Damon's dismal expression of irritation with the history teacher 'I'm sorry…Could you remind me which part was unclear to you Damon?' Bonnie took it upon herself to answer the question directed at Damon, he hardly noticed her move, she was by Damon's side suddenly, her tone just as uncomprehending as the Vampires 'I think it's the part where you said we needed to raise a thousand zombies in mystic falls on Halloween night…'

He didn't correct her summarization of the disjointed statement he'd made to them a while ago, Predictably, Damon found it hard to stay calm about his complete indifference to the situation 'Are you out of your freaking mind?' The witches council Alaric sought after the particularly gruesome display of zombie violence on the school football field on a Friday night, told him otherwise. They were disconcertingly neutral about the carnage something like a thousand zombies could cause in a town like Mystic Falls, _it needs to be done_, that's what they told him 'Am i out of my freak- no that's what they told me..'

The vampire crossed his arms in frustration 'They told you, you 're out of your mind?' Did it bother Alaric, the misery he was causing his friends by being vague about the necromancing details of it all?

Strangely not really, he looked Damon squarely in the eye ignoring his tone 'They told me, what needs to be done...man you need to get a drink of something and chill the hell out..' He thought of it as a good suggestion but that only earned him a horribly scandalised look from his semi almost not quite nemeses and sometimes friend. He went to pour himself another glassful but Damon swiped the bottle out of his reach, at which Alaric let out a half hearted chuckle he was drunk enough anyway, the extra glass would just ensure he had a dreamless sleep and a bad enough hangover which would maybe wipe the memory of the last few years of his event full life.

Unfortunately for him Damon felt otherwise.

'Ric...you really need to snap out of this drink induced zen shit and get your ass back to the planet of serious concerns like a graveyard full of zombies coming to life..., because you're not freaking out ...is really, freaking me out and I have to tell you man, it's not that cool'

Alaric let out a strangled laugh 'You said 'cool' i've never heard you say 'cool' before, it's funny...'

It was strange to hear Damon being the voice of reason for once but he'd been reckless far too many times to earn Alarics concern on the matter. He was tired of the usual run around with a crises, it never made a difference whether they had a contingency plan or not. Friends and loved ones always end up dead or maimed and dead anyway.

Good thing most of them were dead or MIA at the moment.

'Yeah well bad things happen anyway no matter how much we try to prevent them so i figure i'm just gonna let this one go...take a holiday or something you two should do the same' He didn't wait for a reaction, the drink had dimmed his comprehension skills beyond repair for the night and he was not in the mood for a pep talk from the long undead or an amateur teenage witch.

The last thing he heard before crashing face down on his resolutely clean sheets was Damon's insistence on breaking his neck 'just for kicks' and Bonnie dragging him out the front door.


End file.
